The price of the largest cryptocurrency by market cap nosedived almost 7% to near $54,000 over the past 24 hours, according to data from CoinGecko.

Ether also dropped around 10% to around $2,850, swinging below $3,000 for the first time since mid-May.

The collapse of the two biggest cryptocurrencies by market cap pushed the total value of the cryptocurrency market down almost 9% to $2.08 trillion.

The market downturn comes as Mt. Gox, an early crypto exchange that collapsed more than a decade ago, finally began to repay customers after a protracted bankruptcy process, per a notice on its website, which is currently delivering a page-not-found error.

In total, Mt. Gox creditors expect to receive $9.2 billion in Bitcoin.

“The market expects most Mt. Gox users dump their tokens, but we might see a bounce back if the selling is lower than anticipated,” Rachel Lin, co-founder and CEO of SynFutures, a decentralised crypto derivatives exchange, told DL News.

Broader market downturn

The sudden drop in the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies extends a month of losses.

Despite the recent approval from the US Securities and Exchange Commission of spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds, the market hasn’t seen the same upswing it saw after the approval of Bitcoin ETFs in January.

Since the beginning of June, Bitcoin has fallen almost 20% from around $67,000. E

ther has also plummeted about 24% from around $3,700.

Lin says it’s possible that Bitcoin’s price may tank even further on the heels of the Mt. Gox payouts: “If there is enough selling to push the price lower, we might be looking at the $50,000 level soon.”

Crypto market movers

  • Solana is down around 6% over the past 24 hours, trading at $125.

  • XRP has slumped 12.5% to about $0.4.

What we’re reading

  • UK crypto industry nervously looks ahead with voters poised to oust Tories for Labour — DL News.

  • Tron’s Justin Sun Offers To Buy German Government’s Bitcoin Stash Amid Market Turmoil — Milk Road.

  • The two rich Bitcoiners that have the attention of the crypto world — Axios.

  • The SEC is now going after crypto VCs, says BlockTower Capital founder — DL News.

Ben Weiss is a Dubai Correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email him at bweiss@dlnews.com.